How much should I charge for this website?

[kremo5le]

Hello everyone. How are you all doing?

I'm working on developing a few websites for a customer, and I really don't know what to charge. These are gonna be my very first sites, and the guy is really interested in my working on them. Here's the info on the first old one I'm gonna be working on:

- About 13 pages.
- HTML only--database driven for a forum, members, etc.
- Logo must be re-designed (based on current model)
- Hosted at some dude's server.

I think that's about it. Now, what I currently use to develop is Joomla! 1.5.X. I find it a great tool to work for. Anyhow, based on the fact that I would have to redesign everything on Joomla!; that I will be including all those 13 pages in which he wants a forum, a store, and some eye candy effects (check out possible templates I would be using http://yootheme.com); web hosting, SEO promotions, social bookmarks, etc. EVERYTHING.

How much should I charge? I have read many posts and site today and they all talk about "it depends." I know it does "depends" on a lot of factors, but how much would YOU charge?

 

[seoexpert]

I would charge for the design $1,500 and for the SEO promotion $2,500 plus $250 a month maintenance.

 

[kremo5le]

I would charge for the design $1,500 and for the SEO promotion $2,500 plus $250 a month maintenance.

Hey! That's kinda what I have been hearing. Now, could you tell me something:

-What do YOU do for SEO specifically? Is that monthly? I just want to hear your opinion.

-$250 for maintenance for what specifically?

-What if the customer has another website that's also in line to be worked on... Would you reduce the price if the customer wants them both done together (he really does)?

-Lastly, have you design anything on Joomla!?

THANK YOU VERY MUCH!

 

[seoexpert]

SEO for me starts with the website design itself. I like making the website design myself that way I know it is made right with right structure, coding, etc. Then I do all the other stuff, content keyword enriching, h1 - h2 - h3 headers, link building, meta tags, search engine submission, directories, local submission, etc.

This all includes usually 5 months of website maintenance for free. Then after 5 months it's an optional $250 a month maintenance because once you are listed on the search engines you need to keep updating to keep your rank. So the monthly fee includes unlimited website updates, content updates, and a monthly seo report on how the website is doing in the search engines. If I see rankings going down I will update content, do more link building, etc. If it stays the same usually I don't do too much to it.

I do reduce the price, first I already gave you the reduced price in the website design, as the website design I usually charge $2,000 and if you do SEO I will drop it to $1,500. If they guarantee upfront 2 websites, than I would personally give them an extra $1,000 off the total of both websites.

Finally, yes I have designed things on Joomla, I just don't prefer it as I don't feel as in control as if I design a site in html and can make changes in Dreamweaver. I feel that achieve better rankings using this format.